56 
EAST WING. 
of the striking circamstances attending their fall, of their general 
characters, and of their chemical composition : illustrative speci- 
mens, collected together for easy reference, will be found in one 
of the cases. It is also shown that meteorites are closely related, 
not only to the ordinary shooting stars, but also to comets, and 
probably to the nebulse and fixed stars. 
The mass of meteoric iron from Cranbourne, in Australia, is the 
largest exhibited in any Museum. 
Second Floor. 
Botanical 
Gallery. 
Herbarium. 
The upper floor of the East wing is devoted entirely to the 
Department of Botany. 
The Collections of this Department consist of two portions, 
the one set apart for the use of persons engaged in the scientific 
study of plants ; the other open to the public and consisting 
of specimens suitable for exhibition, and intended to illustrate 
the various groups of the Vegetable Kingdom, and the broad 
facts on which the Natural System of the classification of 
plants is based. 
The portion devoted to the use of the scientific student con- 
sists mainly of the great Herbarium. This is a collection of 
plants, fastened on single sheets of folio paper, representing, as 
far as it has been possible to obtain them, first, every species of 
plant living on the earth, and then the distribution of each 
species on the surface of the earth. The various species are 
collected under their respective genera, and these are arranged 
in their Natural Orders, and the whole are systematically 
classified, beginning with the most highly organised (the 
Ranunculacece), and going down to the lowest members of the 
Vegetable Kingdom (the Fungi). 
The foundation of this great Herbarium was the collection of 
the^Her-^^ ^ '^^^ Joseph Banks, consisting of the plants obtained by himself 
barium. and Dr. Solander in their voyage round the world with Captain 
Cook, and of numerous series from all quarters of the globe 
Sir Joseph presented to him or purchased by him. He bequeathed all his 
Banks. botanical collections to the Trustees of the British Museum in 
1820, reserving to Eobert Brown, in whose charge they had 
Historical 
